Issuing Urgent Call For Action against “Unworthy SI”

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PRESS STATEMENT:

Animal Campaigner Queen’s Brian May issues urgent call for action against “unworthy SI”

Responding to the announcement made yesterday that MPs are to be given a free vote on relaxing the ban on fox hunting next Thursday through a statutory instrument to amend the Hunting Act, animal campaigner and Save Me Trust founder, Queen’s Brian May today responded, calling for action to “save our foxes from the return of sadistic sports”.

May writes:

An URGENT call for action against an unworthy SI.

A call to save our foxes from the return of sadistic sports.

It seems we are now approaching the showdown – the moment that has been threatening British wildlife for ten years now – a return to the ugly scenario of unfettered thugs roaming the English countryside with packs of dogs, ready to tear innocent wild animals apart limb from limb while still alive, in the name of sport.

In the 2010 election, David Cameron’s small clique of ruling ministers and pro-hunt MPs were helped into office by an organisation called Vote OK … spawned by the Countryside Alliance to agitate for the return of the blood sports which were banned in the 2004 Hunting Act. Thus an unholy and inappropriate liaison was formed, which is now threatening to deprive the British public of its will to make Britain a humane place for animals.

It’s now clear that the Government, perceiving that Cameron’s long-promised “free vote on repeal of the Hunting Act” is now unlikely to go their way, is attempting to disable the Hunting Act through dishonest and unworthy use of an Statutory Instrument, to allow packs of dogs to roam again alongside bloodthirsty thugs on horses and four-wheelers in the Countryside. It’s an appallingly shabby way of giving the animal-abusers what they want. And it’s also clear that the Countryside Alliance have been complicit in this connivance with the Government in setting up this strategy, a wholly undemocratic abuse of influence.

The Government is to try to force this through next Wednesday in the Commons, when the SI will be put to the vote after a paltry 90 minute debate. If the attempt succeeds, it will be put before the House of Lords in the Autumn.

We must make no mistake here. This underhanded scheme is being sold to MPs as simply a minor amendment to the Act, to bring it into line with the Scottish Wild Mammals Act of 2002.

In fact, this truly is Armageddon for foxes, and those who fight cruelty to animals. On the Government’s own website we learn “Statutory Instruments are used to provide the necessary detail that would be too complex to include in the Act itself”. It’s blindingly obvious that changing the number of dogs allowed in a ‘Pest Control’ operation is NOT too complex to have been included in the Act itself. So from the beginning, this is an unworthy and dishonest use of an SI, and should be rejected by all MPs on this basis alone.

But much more dishonest is the assertion that “this will make it possible for Farmers to control pests in a more humane way”. This is an outrageous falsehood. Firstly it embodies the callous and laughable implication that anyone backing this SI actually cares about humane treatment of animals. Secondly it assumes that foxes actually need controlling – demonstrably untrue since the Hunts are known to breed foxes for their vile sport. Thirdly, it is not farmers who will be using this ‘control’ mechanism – it is the Huntsmen, who torture these magnificent animals for pleasure. Fourthly, can we imagine a whole pack of dogs attacking a family of foxes in their home ? Can we imagine how having a whole pack rather than just two of them can actually make the kill more humane ? This is the most despicable nonsense imaginable.

What can we do ? It’s not too late to E-mail your MP and tell him in no uncertain terms that you expect him or her, regardless of which political party he belongs to, to vote against this SI skulduggery – to vote against the return of unchecked abuse of animals in the Countryside. For more information please visit our Save-Me website.

We, on behalf of the British electorate, and in the name of Common Decency, call on all MPs of all parties to throw this transparently unworthy SI out of the window in the vote on Wednesday.

Brian May 9th July 2015.

Ref: Skulduggery in the House of Commons ? 

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